The Distillation

In a dramatic display that stretched across two committee hearings..., Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) subpoenaed the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration for documents on its confidential sources program. Members of Congress have been seeking copies of the DEA's informant guidelines since last year, following an eye-opening report by the Department of Justice watchdog. The agency's inspector general detailed how the agency doled out more than $200 million to confidential sources with very little oversight.

"Congress has a right to have this material," Chaffetz said, during an Oversight Committee hearing that he chaired on Tuesday morning. "It is unbelievable to me that you think we shouldn't have a copy of it." Robert Patterson, the current Deputy Administrator of the DEA, responded by claiming that the DOJ was blocking the release of copies of the guidelines to lawmakers. Chaffetz told Patterson that he was going to walk next door to the House Judiciary Committee -- where DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg was testifying on separate matters -- to issue a subpoena for the documents. A few hours later, Chaffetz followed through on his promise, after taking his seat on the judiciary subcommittee down the hall. "We are issuing a subpoena, and so I see no choice," he then told DEA chief Rosenberg. "The Department of Justice just doesn't get to hide things from the United States Congress," Chaffetz added. He said that there's evidence of "massive problems" with the DEA confidential informant program.

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